Miami U professor loses DEI lawsuit

Darryl Rice, a tenured associate professor at Miami University’s Farmer School of Business, lost an early round in his federal lawsuit over the school’s elimination of diversity-related committees, offices and events. Judge Matthew McFarland of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio denied Rice’s request for a temporary restraining order, finding that the professor had not shown a likely First Amendment violation. The ruling was reported on May 19 by The College Fix and discussed earlier this month by Eugene Volokh on Reason’s Volokh Conspiracy. The case, Rice v. Schell, was filed on February 12, 2026, against Miami University officials including President Gregory Crawford’s administration figures and other university leaders listed on the docket under the caption naming Mary Schell and other defendants. Rice sued after Miami began winding down DEI-related entities in April 2025, before Ohio’s Advance Ohio Higher Education Act, known as Senate Bill 1, formally took effect. (thecollegefix.com) ### Which programs did Miami University shut down? Miami University began closing a series of DEI-linked offices, committees and events in April 2025, according to the court description quoted by Volokh. The discontinued entities included the Office of Transformational and Inclusive Excellence, the Farmer School of Business DEI Service Committee, the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, Miami Regional’s Center for DEI, the Department of Management DEI Service Committee, the Across-the-Divide Conference, the Inclusive Excellence Faculty Fellows Program, the DEI Mastermind Program, the Diversity and Inclusion Networking Event and DEI Professional Development Day. (dockets.justia.com) Rice argued those cuts mattered not only to his advocacy but also to his faculty service record. The court summary said he had used some of those committees, programs and events to meet the “service” component of his tenure-track obligations. The College Fix, citing Rice’s curriculum vitae, said almost all of his non-teaching experience was diversity-related and identified him as vice president of the Miami University Association of Black Faculty and Staff. (reason.com) ### What was Rice’s First Amendment argument? Rice said Miami’s dismantling of those programs violated his free-speech rights because the university was eliminating forums and structures through which he had engaged in DEI-related work. He also pointed to the effect on his service obligations and invoked an earlier Ohio faculty speech case involving Shawnee State University, according to The College Fix. (reason.com) Judge McFarland rejected that comparison. The court said Rice “does not contend that his in-class speech has been restricted in any way,” and that, even outside the classroom, he did not allege that he had been compelled to speak or prevented from speaking. McFarland wrote that Rice had not shown how “discontinuation of his preferred university programs and entities” amounted to a First Amendment violation. (thecollegefix.com) ### How did Senate Bill 1 figure into the dispute? Ohio’s Senate Bill 1 required public universities to adopt policies barring DEI training, the continuation of existing DEI offices or departments, and the creation of new ones, subject to exceptions described in the law. The court noted that Miami told Rice the closures were mandated by the statute, while also observing that the university had started reorganizing before the law officially took effect. (thecollegefix.com) The court also highlighted a provision stating that faculty and students remain free to engage in classroom instruction, discussion and debate so long as faculty allow students to express intellectual diversity. That distinction helped frame the judge’s conclusion that Rice had not identified a restriction on his own speech. (reason.com) ### Is the lawsuit over? The May ruling did not end the case in full. The College Fix reported that McFarland’s order denied only Rice’s request for a temporary restraining order and that the court will later consider his request for a preliminary injunction. The federal docket shows the case remains pending in the Southern District of Ohio under case number 1:26-cv-00155. (reason.com) Rice filed the suit without a lawyer, according to The College Fix. The next public marker in the case is the court’s handling of the preliminary-injunction request and any subsequent docket entries in Rice v. Schell. (thecollegefix.com)